BP gives Sumitomo a $500m job

BP has awarded Japan’s Sumitomo a contract worth more than $500m to provide 90% of its worldwide drill pipe and casing requirements over the next five years. The oil company said the contract was the first of its kind in size and breadth and was a collaborative arrangement under which each company was expected to […]

BP has awarded Japan’s Sumitomo a contract worth more than $500m to provide 90% of its worldwide drill pipe and casing requirements over the next five years.

The oil company said the contract was the first of its kind in size and breadth and was a collaborative arrangement under which each company was expected to contribute to efficiency improvements in the procurement operation.

‘They’ll have people in our offices,’ said a BP spokesman. He said the long-term global arrangement was designed to deliver value beyond the traditional considerations of price, delivery and quality.

The main losers will be rival foreign manufacturers such as Germany’s Mannesmann.

The UK has not had a domestic producer of pipe and casing since British Steel withdrew from the market in 1992.